The Skull & Bones

[David Guyatt]

http://www.surrenderingislam.com/surrend...-and-bones

The Skull and Bones

The Bagratids dynasty of Armenia, who claimed Jewish descent, were eventually succeeded by the Reubenids, with whom the leader of the Templars, a descendant of Guillaume de Gellone, named Baldwin of Bouillon intermarried, to produce a very important bloodline that would provide all the leading families that governed the Holy Land for two centuries, the House of Lusignan. Their union was symbolised by the skull and crossbones, a symbol that became the mark of Templar graves.

The origin of the skull and crossbones, also known as the Jolly Roger, begins with the tale of Baldwin, brother to Godfroi of Bouillon, and first Crusader King of Jerusalem. The story is first recounted by Walter Mapp, in the twelfth century AD.

According to the legend, an anonymous "Lord of Sidon" was in love with a "great lady of Maraclea [Marash in Cilician Armenia]". This "Lord of Sidon" was Baldwin, and the Armenian princess, whom he married, was Arda of Armenia. She belonged to the Rubinian Royal House of Armenia, founded by her grandfather, Ruben who had established a kingdom in Cilicia. Cilicia was where, the first cases of Mithras worship were recounted, in the first century BC, among the pirates of the region. It had also been the home of Paul, and the birthplace of Paulicianism.

According to Walter Mapp, Baldwin's wife died suddenly, and on the night of her burial, he supposedly dug up her body and violated it. Then a voice from the grave ordered him to return nine months later, when he would find a son. He returned at the appointed time, opened the grave again, and found a skull and crossbones. The same voice then commanded him to "guard it well, for it would be the giver of all good things". It became his protecting genius, and he was able to defeat his enemies by merely showing them the magic head. In due course, it passed to the possession of the Templars, where it came to be known as the Baphomet.

Baphomet, the idol worshipped by the Templars has been variously described as an androgynous deity with two faces and long white beard, or a human skull, which uttered oracular prophecies and guided the destiny of the Order. Indicating a connection to fertility symbolism, Baphomet was said to make "the trees flower, and make the land germinate." In his book De Occulta Philosopia written in 1530, the German occultist and magician, Henry Cornelius Agrippa, mentioned the Templars in connection with the Gnostics and the worship of the pagan fertility god Priapus, the ugly son of Dionysus and Aphrodite, whose symbol was a huge erect phallus, and the Greek, half man half goat god, Pan.

In 1113, Baldwin then married Adelaide del Vasto. Under the marriage agreement, if Baldwin and Adelaide had no children, the heir to the kingdom of Jerusalem would be Roger II of Sicily. This Roger was to become the "Jolly Roger" of history, having flown the skull and crossbones on his ships. Roger married Elvira, daughter of Alfonso VI of Castile and his Ismaili wife, Zaida.